While we prepare for Kidzfest on Saturday, we thought we would take a look back to a previous event for kids, a summer day camp held in two sessions in 2000. The week-long camp covered frontier life and joining the Frederick County militia at Glen Burnie, learning about colonial trades at Abram’s Delight, the Civil War and its impact on Winchester, a day of apple industry and crafts, and celebrating Patsy Cline’s favorite spots around town. Catch the album of 19 photos at Flickr!
As we’ve been teasing, PHW will be one of the interactive exhibitors at this year’s Kidzfest, held from 11 AM-5 PM this Saturday, May 14! This event will be our big hurrah for National Preservation Month, which celebrates our nation’s architectural treasures. We’d like to share our love of old buildings with a fun introduction to building styles and colors.
Where: PHW’s booth will be near the city’s Hable parking lot and the splashpad, about 41 S. Loudoun Street. Click for a PDF map of all the booth locations.
What Activities Will Be Offered? Color a building from a selection of over 20 historic structures in more than a dozen architectural styles. Not sure what style is right for you? We have a “personality quiz” that might help you find your dream home. Then cut out, fold, and use a few pieces of tape to create a house that will stand up! You may take your house with you, or leave it at the PHW table to create a colorful street of historic houses for others to see.
We will also have free architectural walking tours of the Old Town Mall and a special edition of PHW’s newsletter which will cover the architectural styles and historic color suggestions on all of the example styles represented, spanning about 1750-1950.
Who Can Participate? Anyone! Coloring is fun for all ages. Some houses are more intricate than others, but PHW volunteers will be on hand if you need help.
We’ll see you there!
As you may have heard, the fate of the Clowser house in Shawneeland hangs in the balance of the Frederick County Board of Supervisors. The meeting will be held Wednesday, May 11, 7 PM in the Board of Supervisors’ Meeting Room, 107 North Kent Street, Winchester. All meetings are open to the public.
Never heard of the Clowser house? If you’ve ever heard rumors of an Indian attack and local settlers being taken hostage, this was the place where it happened and one of the families involved. The tale is remarkable in itself, but perhaps even more amazing is the story of how some family members escaped a situation that seemed like certain death. The Clowser family lives on among many well-recognized local family names today, including Snapp, Frye, and Schultz. To read the relevant excerpts of the account of the attack and the aftermath, Jim Moyer of the French and Indian War Foundation has compiled a page of resources. You may also read the Preliminary Information Form for the Clowser house at the Department of Historic Resources (PDF), which includes Maral Kalbian’s assertion that it is “the only surviving structure to tell of that interesting part of this area’s early history.”
We made it! As you might remember, we learned changes were coming to Picasa in May. For safety’s sake, all the albums there were backed up at Flickr. The last batch of Holiday House Tour and Annual Meeting photos, about 300 in all, were transferred to Flickr over Apple Blossom weekend. Enjoy this look back, and from here on out, all our Friday Photo posts will be brand new content!
Opening weekend at the Kernstown Battlefield is this Saturday and Sunday, May 7th and 8th! Please meet at the Visitors Center for the regularly scheduled battlefield tours on Saturday at 11 am and 1 pm. In addition to tours of the battlefield, the 1854 Pritchard House, the museum and artillery building, the Liberty Rifles will be presenting a living history all weekend. The living history event’s interpretation will focus on May of 1861, and the organizing of local Winchester citizens into state service following Virginia’s secession from the Union. The participants will represent volunteers who would eventually muster into Confederate service as Company D, 33rd Virginia Infantry. These men, largely from the Winchester area, would serve in the Stonewall Brigade and fight at both Kernstown battles.
Time: Early May until the end of October
Saturdays from 10 am to 4 pm
Sundays from 11 am to 4 pm
Place: 610 Battle Park Dr., Winchester, VA 22602
Tours Include: The battlefield, the 1854 Pritchard House, the museum and artillery collection. For those in need, a golf cart is available to lend assistance.
Cost: All programs are by donation.
Other Information: The Kernstown Battlefield Association is an all-volunteer, non-profit preservation organization. Tours can be arranged throughout the year by contacting the KBA. They have a gift shop with diverse items for purchase, and can accept checks and credit cards.
For more information visit www.kernstownbattle.org or Facebook, or by phone at (540) 869-2896 or (202) 302-9129.
We won’t keep you long this week so you can get to the celebration! PHW has added over 150 photos to the following albums on Flickr:
You can see the latest additions at the beginning of the photostream, or at the end of each of their respective albums. Happy viewing, and happy Bloom!
The Clermont Foundation funds and manages Clermont Farm, a 360-acre research and training site in history, historic preservation, and agriculture, owned by the Department of Historic Resources of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The farm and the foundation were a gift to the people of Virginia by Elizabeth Rust Williams in 2004.
Robert Steig as CEO of The Clermont Foundation, has been integral in the success of recent programs such as the rehabilitation of the farm’s slave quarters and a partnership to help kids raise pigs. Mr. Steig is also very active in the Berryville community, leading the fight to properly represent the first free African-American land owners on Josephine St.
For more information contact Barbara Dickinson at 540-662-9041 ext. 31 or reach her by email at friends@handleyregional.org.
PHW is drawing closer to the end of our fiscal year on May 31. Our spring renewal letters are often a condensed Annual Report, so we wanted to take a moment and share this letter with all of our online readers, too. If you are a PHW member, thanks for supporting us with your dues! If you’re not, please consider joining or even making a one time donation to us via PayPal to help us continue our programs and activities as we prepare to enter our 52nd year.
Over the past year, PHW has continued our Lunch and Learn lecture programs, providing free, high quality history and preservation information to the community, with topics ranging from the history of railroads, Douglas School, and Winchester’s “Wild West” days, to the impacts of the new National Register Historic Districts, to introducing the National Park Service’s Training Center in Frederick, MD.
We also have plenty of fun while learning about history at PHW, as seen during our fall Memberfest. The 2015 theme was that of a speakeasy. Along with the fun of dressing as gangsters and flappers close to Halloween, we enjoyed the superb music of the Bob Larson Trio, homebrew beers, and tales of Winchester during its time as a dry town.
Thanks to the community’s interest and support, PHW was able to make the Holiday House Tour fundraiser a success not only for us, but also the Winchester Little Theatre. The sales generated from our Bough and Dough Shop put another $2,700 into the Winchester Little Theatre’s Restoration Campaign. As you may have seen, the beautiful new roof is now being installed on the old Pennsylvania Freight Station!
Last year, PHW dipped back into children’s education with the railroad program held in conjunction with the Friends of Handley Regional Library. This year, PHW is aiming to expand on that work and provide a fun, free, and educational activity booth at Kidzfest on May 14. We will provide coloring activity sheets covering a variety of architectural styles, suitable for the entire family to explore buildings, history, and color together.
PHW partnered with the City and the North End Citizens Association with the work at the National Avenue roundabout. PHW authored two industrial heritage signs and sold bricks to line the sidewalk as part of the beautification efforts. The proceeds from the brick sales raised $1,000 each for the local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club and the Timbrook House. Both organizations support the education of children in the community.
Lastly, mark your calendars for PHW’s 52nd Annual Meeting, which will be held Sunday afternoon on June 12th at the PHW headquarters in the Hexagon House, 530 Amherst Street. Yard games will return, along with our usual local preservation awards and election of PHW’s board of directors for the 2016-2017 year.
If you prefer to mail a check, click here for a copy of our membership application form to return with your dues.
We do love our houses here, but we needed a little break from scanning the 1976 survey this week. A jaunt to the photo closet yielded a thick volume of Blues House photos, rife with people celebrating in what has since transformed into Piccadilly’s Public House and Restaurant outdoor patio. The celebration of sounds and colors is a perfect little springtime pick me up. Enjoy the photos on Flickr, and be sure to check out winchesterblueshouse.com for information on the Blues House Festival in July 2016.
This weekend is the Winchester and Clarke County Historic Garden Week tours hosted by Winchester-Clarke Garden Club and The Little Garden Club of Winchester. The tour features four outstanding estates and one historic church dating from 1782 to 1993:
Claytonville Farm, 574 Clay Hill Road, Millwood
Clay Hill 859 Clay Hill Road, Millwood
Milton Valley Farm 294 Milton Valley Farm, Berryville
Audley Farm, 752 Audley Lane, Berryville
Old Chapel and Burwell Cemetery, intersection of Rt. 255 and 340, Boyce
For more information, descriptions, and ticket sale information, visit vagardenweek.org.